Its been over a year since Final Fantasy XIV (FFXIV) officially launched, but the troubled MMORPG was in such wretched condition that the FFXIV leadership team was replaced and Square Enix allowed fans to keep playing under an extended free period while work was done to improve the game. A lot of improvements have been made since new Producer/Director Naoki Yoshida took over last December, and now it's time for all of that free play time to come to an end. Starting on January 6th, 2012, FFXIV's grace period will end and players will have to start paying a new monthly subscription to keep playing.

A new post on the FFXIV website outlines several subscription plans for the game along with a few discount options. The standard monthly subscription for FFXIV is priced at $12.99, but players that opt to continue playing and pay the subscription can get a temporary discount and pay only $9.99 (this includes the cost of one character slot) until the release of the new FFXIV 2.0 update. This price also scales with 3 and 6 month subscription plans, which are actually priced for less and also include discount options. Additionally, players that subscribe to both Final Fantasy XIand FFXIV are eligible for further discounts.

Full details about the upcoming subscription changes are available on the FFXIV website.

About The Author

Stacy "Martuk" Jones was a long-time news editor and community manager for many of our previous game sites, such as Age of Conan. Stacy has since moved on to become a masked super hero, battling demons in another dimension.